


Shared Trials

by Merfilly



Category: Elfquest
Genre: Gen, Moving On
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 21:45:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5264795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strongbow gives advice to his son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shared Trials

Dart looked at the mostly silent Wolfrider and nodded once as Strongbow indicated he wished to sit with him. There had been much to learn of one another after so long separated now that they lived in the shadow of the Palace. 

*It is still hard.*

The sending was flavored by age-old regret, and with Ruffel's death fresh in memory, as well as Dart's meandering thoughts on his past, the thrust hit an issue head on.

Dart knew his father never did anything without purpose. He turned his eyes back out, over the spot where they had buried the care-free Ruffel, seeing the flowers beginning to rise from the soul, coaxed there by Redlance's gentle skill.

"I gave up hundreds of years of life, rather than cope, yet I know, there was nothing else I could have done in that moment," Dart admitted. "Shushen…" His voice broke. He'd Recognized, he'd loved, he'd moved on, but that life, cut down so needlessly, precipitating his descent into a kill-madness, was too strong even against the Now he knew he needed to live in.

*Go. Inside. Open yourself to him, to any of them that found their way here.* Strongbow gave a rare, physical demonstration of comfort, reaching up to squeeze his son's shoulder. He then left Dart as silently as he'd come, and Dart thought about the sendings.

He should face Shushen, see if they could put a true closure on the past, and that could only happen if he also opened himself to the Go-Backs he had killed. After several minutes, he rose and followed his father's advice, going inside the Palace to seek absolution, much as his father had done a long time before him.


End file.
